They scored double the points of the Dutch to take a comfortable 74 – 37 victory at the Manchester Velodrome this afternoon (Thursday, May 10). 

 

Britain consistently outscored the Dutch in every quarter, with Athens 2004 Paralympic Games bronze medallist Jon Pollock as top scorer.

 

He said: “The game went well for us – we had a 37 point victory over a team that beat us at the World Championships last year.

 

”It’s not as good as if we had been playing in the final – which we all knew we should have been in and we’re still disappointed that we lost yesterday. 

 

"It was important for us to go out and play well today. We felt like we let the coach down yesterday as the loss was really self inflicted.”

 

Terry Bywater, who was also part of the British team to win bronze at the 2004 Paralympic Games, added: "It's good to come here and get a medal, but it's a pity we're not in the final, because we're capable of getting there and we should have been there.

 

"We've got some great shooters and some world class players and we showed that today - we absolutely destroyed the Dutch to win the bronze."

 

In the round-robin stage GB had already beaten Holland 53-45 but suffered narrow defeats to Australia and Canada, before losing again to Canada in yesterday’s semi-final.

 

In a repeat of the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, Canada beat Australia 47 – 49 in an extremely close final to win gold in the tournament.

 

Paralympic Games bronze medallist Sinclair Thomas used today’s game to mark the end of his international basketball career and will now retire from the GB team.

 

Meanwhile there was disappointment for Britain’s women, who failed to build on the successes of the last two Paralympic World Cups - when they won silver - to finish fourth following a defeat to France in the bronze medal match.

 

France took the early lead in the game, creating a nine point lead in the first quarter. In the second quarter GB made a good comeback outscoring the French 7-2 but failed to continue this run in the final two quarters to eventually lose 25 to 48.

 

Earlier in the tournament the GB side had beaten France 42 - 34 and Spain – who today won silver - by 34 to 24, but a semi-final defeat at the hands of the Spanish saw them battling for bronze medal.

 

Caroline Matthews said: “We’re disappointed that we didn’t get the win today but we tried some different line outs and ran through all our offences and defences, which is good preparation for the European Championships in September.

 

“We need to get bronze at the Europeans to qualify for Beijingso it’s all about that for us now.

 

“There’s a good mixture of experience and rookies in the squad and we’re trying to bring youngsters in who are keeping us quick.

 

“The performances at this tournament have been good it’s just the results that have been varied.”

 

Garry Peel, Britain's women’s head coach, said: “Overall I was glad that the youngsters came on and played so well – it was my intention to test a few new players out and they actually played really well. We just weren’t sharp enough out there – but that’s why this tournament is here – to test these things out.

 

“Now we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and start shooting more.

 

"The one thing the girls have been lacking is competitions but we’re going to Austriain two weeks and then playing Francea gain, which should give us more experience ahead of the Europeans.”

 

In the women’s final Japan put in a top performance against Spaint o win 50-17 and take the gold – which means they were unbeaten throughout the tournament.